The importance of having the drag of a fishing reel set properly is well understood among fishermen. Properly setting you drag is especially important in fishing for larger fish, such as tuna and other species, that put up a substantial fight and take longer periods of time to land. If the drag of the fishing reel is set to “tight” for the fishing line being used, the fishing line will break when the fish exerts a force on the line that exceeds the strength rating of the fishing line being used. However, if the drag of the fishing reel is set to “loose,” the fishing line will be pulled form the reel too easily, resulting in an insufficient amount of force being applied to a hooked fish. This increases the amount of time it will take to the land the fish and can result in the fish twisting and/or wrapping the fishing line about itself or another object, which often results in the fishing line being snapped and the fish lost
It has been noted that the longer a fish is on the line, the more things can go wrong. Thus, the importance of applying maximum pressure to a fish early in the fight when your tackle is still in the best shape is recognized as a vital consideration.
A number of styles of drag reels are currently used, including lever drag reels (which allows a user to switch between drag settings) and star drag reels (which are much trickier and are operated by a matter of feel). There are also products which serve as fish scales/drag scales that are available in both mechanical and digital models. However, these devices always categorize setting the drag as a secondary consideration and, thus, are less than optimal.
A typical mechanical scale consists of a hollow tubular aluminum body with a hook and an internal extension spring which reads in 1 pound increments (or less up) to varying levels of capacity. Some of these models have a highest pound indicator which shows you visually the highest reading where the indicator stopped after pressure was applied. The digital models are offered in plastic or molded bodies and again have a hook for weighing fish, or setting drags that read out on a digital LED face. These devices usually require more than one person and are at best inconvenient for the user to operate. A hand held drag checker is available on the market; however, a user is on their own to set and reset the drag while using the checker to verify that you have obtained the proper tension. This process is difficult, cumbersome, and awkward to use.
Other devices for setting the drag on a fishing line are known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,317,377 to Wrinkle purports to disclose a drag adjustment device for fishing reels which includes a switch means operatively connected to an indicator light, a means, such as a knob, for selectively shifting the switch means upward or downward, and a spring biased drag element which when pulled by a fishing line pulls the drag element into contact with the switch means to activate the indicator light signaling that the drag is set. Additionally, U.S. Pat. No. 4,083,233 to Seal purports to disclose a drag adjusting device for fishing reels including two arms held together by a hinge, with a plurality of passageways located along each arm for receiving fishing line therein to set the drag to a certain percentage of the maximum test strength of the line.
Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 6,367,339 to Lilonsky et al. purports to disclose a drag setting device that includes a cable, line, or other fastening member which can be attached to a fishing line of a fishing rod and reel. The drag setting device of Lilonsky further includes a pulling member for pulling the fishing line towards the drag setting device, a first actuator for selecting the amount of tension applied by the drag setting device to the fishing line, and a second actuator for causing the drag setting device to apply the selected tension to the fishing line.
The aforementioned devices are less than optimal in that they are expensive to manufacture, difficult to use, cumbersome, unreliable, irreparable, and/or require two people to use